Xbox Game Pass Will Now Include All Microsoft-Published Releases on Day One

The Xbox Game Pass is a £7.99-a-month service that gives subscribers access to a library of over 100 games. It's pretty decent — there's a lot of older games on there, but there's also plenty of more recent high-profile games on there too. Well, it's just about to get better, as Xbox has just announced a massive update: from now on, every Microsoft-published Xbox One exclusive will be added to the Game Pass on the day its released.

That means that all Xbox Game Pass users will be able to play Sea of Thieves on March 20th, the day it launches, as part of their subscription. It'll also include the upcoming State of Decay 2, Crackdown 3 and the future games from Microsoft's biggest franchises — Halo, Forza and Gears of War.

Microsoft are also looking at new ways that users can pay for the Xbox Game Pass. Currently, it's only available to buy through your console on a monthly subscription basis, but in a partnership with US retailer GameStop, a six-monthly subscription card will be soon available in-store. It's likely we'll see something similar in UK shops, too.

If you're an Xbox One owner, it's certainly a subscription that's worth considering, with new games added to the roster every month. And although Microsoft might not have the biggest announced line-up of exclusives just yet, to know that those games will be part of the service on the day they launch is a massive deal, and it's bound to cause some ripples in how games are bought and consumed going forward. [Major Nelson]